The essay was first published in 1997.
He is writing to his peers in order to point out the disadvantages of using the World Wide Web for educational purposes.
The author develops his thesis by supporting an argument. He is basically saying that many of the students in his classes at the University were not writing good essays in class as they had done in the past before the use of the Internet. And that the information obtained on the websites are outdated sources of information that are not as complete or thorough compared to the information which could be found in a book at a library. He beleives this causes the students to write